Chronological study of municipal governance on sustainable development of office market in Manchester through urban regeneration

Abstract

This paper intends to expand the important debate on the state-market relations highlighting the role of municipal governance in urban regeneration that shapes and stimulates the sustainable development of office market in Manchester through regeneration strategies since the 1960s. This research focuses on the government leadership of key Council leaders’ decision-making process that extends the focus from local planning authorities as market actors (Huerkens, 2015; Adams, 2010) to the political leaders. This research aims to fill the gap of lacking sufficient discussions on the role of municipal leadership in moulding property market through regeneration policy. Also the construction of new regeneration office index sheds light on the market impact of planning policies in sustainable development. Three research methods were employed in this research: firstly, critical assessing the secondary documents such as government planning reports; secondly, conducting semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders; thirdly, a regeneration office database was used to cross-examine the market impact of regeneration policies on its performance over time. The primary findings are (1) The key political leaders and the chief executive had a significant influence and power over the direction of regeneration strategies since there is a close link between a strong leadership and a clear vision. (2) There is a positive connection between a strong leadership and effective policy implementation, which results in planning permissions being granted more speedily for proposed developments. (3) Consequently, it increases the level of certainty and market confidence among developer and investors, which affects the market performance. This research indicates there is positive connectivity between the local planning policies and property market behaviour adding rich insights to the debate on state-market relations in urban regeneration. It also demonstrates that the analysis of leadership in local government helps explain the complex relationships between policy formulation, policy implementation and policy outcomes.